The Cullen Boys
by Apolloluver
Summary: After three years of living in Phoenix with her mother, Bella moves back up to Forks for her senior year and faces all the darkness she left behind her when she moved down south including a sister who betrayed her, a lovesick childhood bestfriend, a heartbroken pixie, and a face from Bella's past that controls a war between La Push and Forks. All human.
1. The Town

Chapter One / The Town

Charlie drove me home at a depressingly fast speed, the _Welcome to Forks _sign hit me way before I was ready, and I couldn't help but regretting my decision to move back to Forks immediately.

"You okay over there, Bells?" Charlie noticed my sudden stiffness, regarding me curiously with one eye while the other was on the road. I guess over the past three years his awareness to people's emotions had increased, because three years ago, Charlie never would of noticed my body stiffening, or maybe he did, he just didn't want to ask.

"Yeah, dad." I gripped onto the bottom of my seat as a looming brown building came into my eyesight, "I'm just fine."

The first thing you noticed when coming into Forks, other than the mist and the woods, was Forks High School. A two-story building with just enough room to fit four hundred students and a small faculty, and also the place I'd been having nightmares about the past three years.

"It's good to have you back home, even if you don't want to be here." Charlie said after a few minutes of silence, shocking me so much I couldn't reply immediately. But by the time my mind had processed his words, we were home.

Home being the same place my mother Renee had stormed out of fifteen years ago trying to find herself, I couldn't exactly remember her leaving, but from how much crap Bree had talked about her and the stories I'd heard about that day, I knew enough to know it wasn't peaceful.

"Go on in." Charlie said when I tried helping him grab my two suitcases out of the trunk of his police car, "I've got your bags. Just go make yourself right at home."

I knew arguing with him would be pointless, so I let myself in through the old red front door, and ignoring the main floor, dashed my way up the stairs to my old bedroom.

It was just how I'd remembered it, painful, filled with too many memories.

My room was painted a pale purple color I'd loved as a kid, but the paint was peeling around the edges, something Edward had always sad "added character" because he watched too many home designing shows with Esme. My bed was full sized, centered between two bedsides tables covered in dusty photographs from a happier lifetime. My eyes lingered on the one closest to my bed, one with three smiling kids, two girls with dark hair and a darker skinned boy with chubby cheeks.

A sharp pang filled my stomach, I instinctively reached out to the picture frame and threw it on the floor before kicking it under my bed, I never wanted to see it again.

"Bella." Charlie suddenly was right outside the door, three suitcases had somehow been lugged up the stairs behind him and he was standing there, looking at me with this sad look that made me know he'd seen me kick the picture frame.

"Thanks." I grabbed my suitcases from him and rolled them in, trying not to meet his sad expression.

"Anytime." He said after a few seconds of awkward silence, and then without saying anything else I heard his heavy shoes clomp down the stairs, and the backdoor swing open a few moments later.

Sighing, I laid down on the bed, tearing at my old beat-up and way too young looking comforter, and starting messing around in my suitcases.

I hadn't packed much of my old stuff, only what I knew I'd miss. In Phoenix I'd tried to change myself in an attempt to be happy, I'd had my third kiss with a boy I'd actually liked, I'd replaced my hoodies and jeans from Forks for skirts and frilly blouses-courtesy to Renee for buying me cute clothes- and had gone out every other weekend with girls I'd actually labeled decent enough to be friends with. But that was states away, and I was back to being jeans and hoodie Bella now.

I decided, after close inspection, that the only thing I liked about this room now was the tall white bookshelf by the window, where my precious babies laid, unread for so long and just begging me to open them again. The writers names floated off the page and nestled themselves into my heart, Bronte, Austen, Twain, Shakespeare. For a second I forgot that I was back in the very place I'd cried about visiting for the past few years and was submerged in the thought of cuddling up in the living room by the fire and reading.

That was, until the sound of a downpour hit the roof, and I remember where I was. Forks, Washington. The rainiest place on the west coast, and my imprisonment until I could graduate and head out East for a change.

I unpacked slowly, taking my time to sort out old things from my room I no longer wanted, and ended up with shoving a huge pile of stuff either too old, dusty, childlike, or painful to look at in the back of my closet and let out a deep sigh of relief when I realized it was all gone, and that my room was almost completely bare of character now. I wondered what Edward Cullen would say about that. I hadn't heard from him since I'd returned here once after moving to see the baby, and after that, silence.

Edward was one of the older brothers of my good friend, Alice. One year my minor and the baby of the Cullen clan, she was the only person from Forks other than my father I'd kept in contact with, and the one person I was looking forward to seeing.

After cleaning out the painful things it was easy to unpack. Two of the suitcases were clothes, which consisted of jeans, sweats, yoga pants, Bears hoodies, a couple cute blouses I'd tagged along, and three dresses I couldn't part with that I figured I'd wear at least once up here. I suppose some of the girly Bella had hidden on the plane ride up here and never left me, after all. My last suitcase was the smallest, and the most personal one. From it I grabbed my little black notebook I kept hidden safer than the Holy Grail, a couple books I'd brought from Phoenix, a picture collage frame my friends from Phoenix had put together as a parting present, and a single necklace hidden in a sock that I couldn't bare to look at yet.

By the time I was done unpacking and cleaning I was exhausted, and it was getting late. Downstairs I could hear Charlie clanging away in the kitchen, and despite my eyes only being halfway open, and tomorrow being my first day back, I forced myself to change into sweats and a wife beater before making my way downstairs.

"Are you okay, dad?" I peered cautiously into the kitchen, wary of what Charlie could be doing in here by himself. And being shocked at the outcome.

From the oven I smelled something delicious, and I noticed rolls on the table, along with a pitcher of sweet tea.

"Fine, Bells. Why you asking?" He turned from the stove to look at me curiously, his thick eyebrows scrunching up high on his head.

"I'm not used to seeing you cook." I admit bashfully, "You never did when before I moved."

He shrugs, turning his attention back to whatever he's cooking. "I had to live by myself. After the baby your sister moved into an apartment with _that boy._ And you moved with Renee. I had to learn to take care of myself."

Something behind my eyes starts to sting, and I slowly realize that I'm tearing up.

"Its all good though." He says casually, like he doesn't realize that he's hurt me, which he probably hasn't, because he's still focused on his food, pork chops, I see suddenly. "I'm a grown man now, it's about time I learned how to fend for myself."

I smile faintly. "You can take on criminals, but you couldn't cook food until you were middle aged."

He winks at me quickly, his lip turned up in a smile very much like my own, and I can see why Renee would of fallen in love with my dad back when she was young and threw caution to the wind.

In the end Charlie shares his pork chops with me, making small talk here and there, never lingering on a subject too long before changing it. Its like he's trying to figure out what he can and can't talk to me about.

"Are you excited about seeing Alice tomorrow?" He asks out of the blue, going from a conversation about Phoenix's baseball team to my old friend suddenly.

"Kind of." I shrug mid-bite, "I miss her. Nobody in Phoenix could match her spunk, and she's the only one I've kept up with from Forks."

"She's still spunky." He smiles, and I remember how much Charlie loved Alice when we were kids and she'd spend all her time over at my house. She was like a third daughter to him…

"And how are the three brothers?" I cant help but asking, my mind thinking of an old busted teddy bear I'd seen laying in the corner of my floor upstairs, the only thing of my old life I hadn't thrown in the closet.

"They're good." Charlie says after chewing more slowly than usual. "Emmett, he's probably going to college for football. He's a linebacker, and one of the best I've seen at his age and level in my life." He grins widely, like Emmett's his own son.

"And the other two?" I press on, wondering about the oldest triplet brother, Edward.

"Edwards good too," this time he talks with a mouthful of food. "When he's not in trouble with those La Push boys, ever since Aro died there's been a rivalry between the La Push teens and Forks." I slowly see Charlie change from dad to police chief in just a few seconds. "You heard about that, right?"

I nod.

"Sam Ulley- Billy's nephew. Got into some fight with Aro in a club in Port Angeles and killed em', got a knife out and stabbed Aro straight through the heart like you'd stake a vampire." Charlie shook his head in disgust. "A damn shame too, Aro, while he wasn't someone I'd approve for _you, _he was a good kid. Just graduated college and everything, then Sam goes and messes it all up just over a bar brawl. Shame."

"And what's that got to do with Edward?"

"You know what Bella. Aro was like Edwards role model, he was the prom king for Forks his senior year, and when he died, all of Forks got offended. And when Sam got locked up, all of La Push got offended too. Since there's been more fights in Forks than there is at an MMA fight. Edwards usually in em too, always trying to save James."

A pudgy face and curly blonde hair pops in mind when I think of James Cullen, and I wonder what that little boy would be doing in so many fights.

"I see what you're thinking, Bells. James has changed a lot since you left; he's met drugs from Seattle and gang members with guns. He's not safe, there's always one runt in the litter, Carlisle and Esme's just ended up being a boar."

The rest of our dinner we talk about lighter subjects, like what classes I'm signed up to take, and how Mr. Stanely caught his wife with her massage therapist a year ago. I soon find myself in bed, relaxed, and listening to the rain. Trying to not think about how terrible tomorrow may be.

/O/

In the morning I'm woke up by a loud honk from outside my window, and being introduced to my 'new' car. And old beat down burgundy truck Charlie's bought me, and it takes less than five seconds for me to fall in love with it. Its not new, but it has a lot of _character. _

It's the middle of fall here, so I settle on dark skinny jeans, and a gold ¾ sleeve length blouse that looks nice along my dark hair. Paired with riding boots Renee bought me before I left Arizona, and a swipe of lip-gloss, I'm good to go. Its not until I'm driving to school do I realize that I'm about to face my fears from the past three years. And hear all the rumors and news about what's happened in my departure about Bree or whatever else, I cant help but take a deep breath and try to prepare myself for what's to come today.

I park in the shadows of the parking lot, trying to avoid whatever attention I can manage, and successfully sneak my way into school without confrontation. My first place to go is the attendance office, and on my way I spot a small group of familiar faces huddled in the schools main lobby. And from a vantage point of hiding beneath a jacket I'd slipped on to face the rain, I let myself stare.

There's Alice Cullen standing proud and small beside the only blonde Cullen boy there is, James. Alice has cut her hair short and spiky, and is dressed in a dark charcoal sweater dress and pumps that add four inches, she's gorgeous, in a Tinkerbell turned Goth turned classy kind of way.

James looks exactly like Carlisle now, gone is the small frail boy, and here is a six foot man with curly blonde hair that falls below his ears, smooth pale skin, and the same blue eyes as his sister. He's dressed much differently though, in dirt covered sneakers, jeans, and a Forks High School Baseball hoodie.

They're standing with Jasper Whitlock and a blonde with a huge rack that has to be one of the two Denali sisters we grew up with. No Edward, though. Its not till I realize this, that I realize that he's the only one I was looking for in the first place.

"ISABELLA SWAN IS THAT YOU?" I'm interrupted from my thoughts of Edward Cullen by his little sister flying from one side of the room to mine in a matter of seconds, and suddenly she's in my arms, grasping for dear life.

"Hey pixie." I smile into her hair, feeling grateful that the first person to notice me was Alice and not someone I didn't care for. Her shout does attract the attention of everyone else in the lobby, however. Tons of heads stop and stare our way, and I know that as soon as I'm out of sight, the rumors will start.

"You're back!" Alice has tears in her eyes, and I hope she has waterproof eyeliner on. "I mean, Charlie told my parents you were coming back in the fall, but I didn't know it was today. Why didn't you tell me?! I just talked to you last week!"

"Alice, breath." I smile although she can't see it, my heads still pinned against her neck from her bear hug. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you."

"Well it is!" she shouted, jumping from the hug and stepping back to stare at my outfit. Her expression unreadable until after a few long seconds she meets my eyes. "You're wearing jeans on your first day back."

I raise an eyebrow, which only makes her expression grow angry.

"Bella, I thought you told me you tried in Phoenix."

"Alice," I gesture to my outfit, "I _did _try."

"Sure you did." She sniffs in disdain; "I'm taking you out shopping soon,"

"Oh Alice, leave Chimes alone." Two new bodies come behind Alice and I look up to see Jasper and James. My two blonde saviors.

"Nice to see you two." I can't help but smile at the boys. "You've both grown up so much." Its at this moment that I realize Alice isn't even complaining about being told to leave me alone, she's grown silent and almost still beside me, suddenly finding something interesting in the floor tiles.

"It hasn't been the same without you," James pulls me in briefly for a hug and I cant help but smell his baseball hoodie and realize what Charlie was talking about, the smell on James is a smell I know from Phoenix when the band kids would sneak out behind the band room during their free periods and smoke weed. And my unlucky soul got stuck in the middle of it because my sophomore year I'd wanted to try band out for once, and realized that I want musically talented, and didn't wish to hang out with a bunch of stoners.

"Yeah, we've missed you Chimes." Jasper pulls me to his side next, "The four boys couldn't handle Alice without you, if you hadn't of come back, we'd of all had grey hairs by her in the next few months."

I laugh, looking over at my small friend to find her face flushed and angry, this is new.

"Come on Bella," she pulls me away from Jasper a little too harshly, and glares daggers up at him, only making him grimace. "Lets get your schedule."

I shoot a curious glance at Jasper before following Alice into the crowd that's formed in the lobby, following her towards the office. Some of the faces are familiar and some are not, and from my starring around I meet a pair of familiar eyes momentarily on the stairway leading to the upper level. Cold green eyes that hold no emotion, cold green eyes that I know like the back of my hand. Edward Cullen.

"What was that with Jasper?" I ask Alice when we're safely in the office, waiting on the secretary to notice us.

She shrugs, and the past few conversations I've had with her flood my mind and I remember something Alice once told me two years ago late night on the phone.

"You still like him, don't you? Even after everything?"

Alice doesn't answer me, but the way her body stiffens gives me all the answers I need.

Jasper and Alice were soul maters from the beginning, but it was and always has been Jasper who hasn't realized that. He dated a girl from La Push named Maria for two years until Aro's killing, when the two towns split and the tension arose. Maria chose the wolves, and Jasper remained loyal to the people of Forks. And in other words, Maria broke Jaspers heart. Since Jaspers been colder, more distant to the others, especially Alice, and she doesn't know what to do to bring the old Jasper back.

"Mrs. Cope." Alice finally gets the secretaries attention, "This is Bella Swan, do you remember her? She's here to get her schedule."

Mrs. Cope looks up from her desk and smiles at me widely, "Of course I remember the little Swan! Why you look so much like Bree, so pretty. I have your schedule somewhere in the desk." She digs around her desk, a big wooden thing that's probably been here since the school was made, and eventually comes up with a slightly crumbled piece of yellow paper and stares at it momentarily.

"First class is English with Mrs. Taylor, have a great first day, Bella!"

It turns out that Mrs. Taylors Advanced English class is two classes down from Alice's, so she drops me off at the door and wishes me luck, with a mysterious twinkle in her eye that makes me wonder if something's going on.

I walk into a small class of less than twenty, a big difference from what I was used to in Phoenix, and meet Mrs. Taylor, a middle aged woman who says I look exactly like my sister- _great- _and nods me to the back of the room where the lights are off and there's no windows. I look at the only seat beside me to see a lone black book bag of my missing table partner.

Mrs. Taylor doesn't make me introduce myself, which I love, and goes straight into talking about some Greek drama I've already read. Its thirty minutes into class when a new knock makes her stop, and a fowl look covers her face when she peers out the doors window.

"You came to class just to drop your bookbag off then leave, Mr. Cullen? What do you have to say for yourself."

But Mr. Cullen doesn't say anything at all. Edward walks by Mrs. Taylor without acknowledging her, and for a second just stares blankly at our table until he realizes its me, and then my brain fully realizes that it's him, Edward Cullen in the flesh.

Like James and Alice, Edwards grown. He's grown well.

He has to be at least six foot, and his tall body is filled out with enough muscle to make him look fit, but not enough to make it overdone. His hair is even wilder than I remember, but the old curls it used to have it gone, now its just wavy and a red-brown mess on the top of his head. His jawline is the main character of his face, and attracts my attention even before his cold green eyes I'd met earlier on the stairway. He's dressed in dark jeans and a black button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, he's a dream, a blessing. And suddenly he's sitting beside me without saying a word. My childhood best friend doesn't even acknowledge me.

The next hour goes by without even a glance, and when the bell rings, telling me that its time I go to history, Edward takes his sweet time collecting his things, but doesn't take one second to spare me a glance. I stand to the side awkwardly for a whole minute before accepting hat he's not going to say anything, and storm out of the room before I think too hard about what his silence could mean.

My next class goes by fine, seeing as its with Alice who practically begs the teacher to be allowed to sit beside me, and is almost peaceful till someone asks me what my nephews middle name is an I stiffen up, trying not to think about the baby as Alice answers the question for me.

By lunch I've calmed down, and I sit with Alice at the same table as the other Cullen brothers, including Emmett who hugs me as fiercely as Alice did this morning, and getting a warm hug from Angela Webber and Mike Newton, two of my old friends who welcome me back and sit at the same table as the Cullen's.

I end up squeezing between Emmett and Alice, and sadly am positioned right across and one seat to the left from no other than Edward himself. Who's talking to everyone else, but me.

"Chimes, is there no sun in Phoenix either?" Jasper asks me out of the blue, "Because you're as pale as us. I've never really seen the sun before, but I hear if you stay out in it for too long, you actually get _tan." _He wiggles his eyebrows at me and makes a point of comparing my skin tone to his own. Same exact tone. Despite the fact that in Phoenix I lived outside along pools most of the day, I've never been able to tan.

"Good one, Jasper." I narrow my eyes at him, "But maybe next time save it for someone with less of a sense of humor, no one here found that funny." I look around the table to see that no ones laughing at him, but with me instead.

Jasper shrugs, leaning back into his seat and nudging Edward beside him, who turns from spinning an apple on the table and raises a single dark eyebrow at his friend. "Edward here thought it was funny, didn't you Ed?"

I look at Edward for an answer but he doesn't give an exact one, he just shrugs and turns back to his apple.

"I didn't think it was funny, Bella." Kate Denali chimes in from Emmett's other side, the same sister I saw in the lobby. And the same one who Alice informed me is in love with her youngest brother. Kate's the younger sister to Tanya, who's a year older than my own sister. But Kate's much prettier in my opinion, while Tanya was supermodel skinny with a blow out hair style and heather colored eyes, Kate's more round, curvier, with golden straight hair and hazel eyes. She also seems nice, but something about her personality doesn't seem feisty enough to deal with Emmett, and the way he constantly overlooks her makes it obvious that I'm right.

"Thank you, Kate." I nod and smile in her direction before looking back at Jasper defiantly, "Swan 1, Whitlock 0."

He smiles good naturedly before returning to his pizza slice, bringing silence back the table. Its not until I see the door of the cafeteria open and an African American kid come pacing in fast for the table that I feel the tension rise, for once, Edward looks up and alert as he approaches. Tyler, I think his name is.

"What is it?" Edward asks when Tyler's within five feet of the table, Tyler stops at his side and bends down to his ear, whispering swiftly into it and I notice that the whole tables tempo has changed. Alice has gone from pecking at her food to starring off into space, and Emmett's starring at Tyler's moving lips like he's trying to read them.

"Very well." Edward murmurs to Tyler when the boys finished talking, his eyes become even colder and more serious. They flicker to Emmett's momentarily for a second in understanding, then to mine cautiously where they widen, like he's just realize that I'm here too, they only linger on me for a second before they move to James, sitting huddled up at the edge of the table.

"What's wrong, Ed?" Emmett asks, starting to rise from the table for a second before Edward waves him down with a dismissive gesture.

"Nothing." He sighs, rubbing against his temples. "Just there's been another fight on the beach, some young middle schoolers got into it, and one of them has a concussion."

"A wolf of a vamp?" James asks, attracting the table's attention down to the blonde Cullen brother.

"Vamp." Edward narrows his eyes, "The boy was just messing around on the beach before some La Push thirteen year old comes up and they start brawling. Someone broke it up after a minute or two, but the boys in the hospital now."

"A minute or two?" I jump in this time, attracting all cautious eyes and one piercing glare in my direction. "How come it took that long? Its still early fall, the beach is still usually packed so someone had to see it happening for a long while. Who was it?"

Its Edward who answers bitterly, starring me in the eyes with such cold intensity it chills me.

"It was Jacob Black."

**Something new I'm trying out. Let me know what you think about this!**


	2. The Wolf

Chapter Two / The Wolf

"Jacob Black." I repeat his name softly; it tastes sour in my mouth.

I've pushed his name out of my mind more time the past few years then I can count on both hands, because with it comes sadness, and the image of a small, tan baby with black hair and the same brown eyes I see when I look at my father.

"Yeah," Tyler says, completely oblivious to how much the name means to me. "He was at the beach with some of his wolves, then this little kid just jumps on one of our middle school kids, I think the wolves name is Seth, he jumped right on Gregory Zink. He lives down the street from me."

"Seth is Leah Clearwaters little brother." Alice chimes in from my side, "He's one of Jacob's too-bee's, soon he'll be in the pack."

"Great." Edward says through grit teeth, slamming his fist on the table and attracting attention from others around our group. "And that bastard let one of ours get hurt while we're on a treaty? It's broken now."

"Edward." Alice glares daggers at her brother across the table. "You're supposed to stay out of fights for the mean while, remember?"

"Then I'll get some of the boys to do it. I think Derrick Zink is the kids older brother, I know he'll want to do something." Edward shares a quick glance with James, who suddenly seems enthralled by the conversation.

Alice sighs, looking past me over to Emmett who shrugs.

"Just don't get too involved, please." She looks at Edward to James then back to Edward. "I don't want you two getting into anymore trouble. It's our senior year, we have enough going on already."

"We'll be fine, Al." James promises, but he's smiling some slick grin that makes me wonder just how much James has changed since I left.

"Trust us," Edward grasps her small hands into his own big pair, "Nobody will get too hurt."

Alice snorts at that, but seems to calm down enough to return to picking at her food while everyone else at the table grows quiet for the rest of the period.

My final two classes are Calculus and Art. Forks High has a different kind of schedule than my school in Phoenix did; you have eight classes, but only attend four a day, and switch off. So tomorrow I'll have Chemistry, Spanish, Music Theory, and end my day with a free block meaning I can leave early.

My art teacher is an older man with balding, dirty blonde hair and I soon come to learn that he's colorblind. A colorblind art teacher, an interesting combination.

He gives me a table by myself near the window, but a quick examination tells me that I'm not alone here. In the back I see Jasper, fumbling over some black and white portrait on his table. He sits alone too.

I take the time so look at Jasper; I haven't really paid him much attention all day. But I can tell why Alice is attracted to him.

He's grown tall and lanky, his heads covered in loose blonde curls, and his eyes are grey and clear. He's got the face of a troublemaker, the kind you fall in love with, his ears are small and pointed, and his eyebrows are a few shades darker blonde than his hair, but he's handsome in a different way than I'm used too.

He notices me starring and gives me a head nod in acknowledgement, and I return without thinking. But before I can even say anything he hunches back up over his project, scribbling away at a nondescript face.

Mr. Grey, the teacher, gives me the same assignment after showing me where the tools were around the room. A portrait of someone who reminds you of home, he hands me a sheet of white paper and a pencil before moving on to the next person down the row.

I've always been good at art. Back when I was young and more antisocial than I am now, I'd hole myself up in my room and draw all day, until my wrist grew so sore I had Charlie ice it for me. I'd once been told by Jacob that I should go to art school, and that I had a talent. But art, while fun, wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. It was more of a hobby, something to take my mind off of my troubles.

The sketch wasn't hard, but the person to sketch wasn't. Who reminded me of home? And where exactly was home to me?

Was it Forks? The Swan house? The Cullen house? The Blacks? I wasn't sure. All three houses were home to me, and with them came different faces, some of them I didn't want to see in my mind.

Charlie, Bree, Edward, Alice, Jacob, who to draw?

Charlie seemed the less painful, but while I loved my dad, home to me went deeper to that. I'd always been close to Charlie, but not exactly on an emotional level.

Bree was out of the question, period. My older sister could move all the way to Florida and never come back for all I cared; she was no home to me.

I lingered between Edwards face and what I remembered of Jacobs, which was a lot seeing as it had been embedded into my mind since a young age. After a few minutes of deep thinking I decided on which boy was more of a home to me, and set to work.

By the time the 3:25 bell rang I was exhausted from my long day and ready to go home, outside the rain has stopped for just a long enough amount of time for me to make it safely to my new, old truck and I laid back in the seat and sighed out in relief. I'd made it through my first day.

A knock on the door startled me from my relaxation, and I stirred and looked out to meet Alice's bright blue eyes starring at me amusedly. I couldn't help but rolling my own and opened it for her curiously, raising an eyebrow at my short friend.

"Yes?"

"I'm coming home with you." She said, smiling up at me and walking around the truck before opening the passenger door and hopping in.

"This is your car, huh?"

I continued to stare at her.

"What? Bella I don't want to go back to my house, Jaspers going to be there."

I still starred.

"Plus I need to see your closet, if we're going to be as close as we used to be, I need to know what I'm working with here. Stop starring and drive."

I knew better than to argue with Alice, so I did as she said and started the engine, the truck roared to life and caught the attention of bystanders who Alice happily flipped off as we drove away.

The only two cars in the parking lot worth any money was a silver shiny Volvo and a yellow Jeep wrangler, I already knew whose cars they were before even looking at the group standing beside the cars. Emmett and Jasper both sat in the Jeep playing music so loud I could hear it from the truck, and I saw Edward talking to Mike Newton outside of the silver Volvo while James was waiting around outside of the passengers side, probably waiting for his brother to unlock the car. Stupid, spoiled, Cullens.

"Do they all share cars?" I asked Alice, nodding over at her three brothers.

She snorted like the idea that the _Cullen _brothers would share a car was ridiculous.

"No. Emmett has the Jeep, Edward has the Volvo, and James had a Mercedes till he started getting in trouble. Now I get it when I get my license in a few months, and he gets to buy his own when he gets a job or Carlisle thinks he's responsible enough for one again."

I cant help but rolling my eyes. "And here I am happy with my baby." I caress the trucks dashboard. "Only had it one day, and I'm already in love."

Alice looks at me disgusting and shakes her head, "Just drive, Bella."

The downpours back by the time I make it back to the house, Charlie's cruiser is gone, and it takes me five minutes to rummage around my bookbag to see if I packed the spare key Charlie gave me yesterday.

I find it, and Alice and I make a dash to the porch where we take comfort in the overhang as I open the door and walk inside the house.

I slide out of my soaking black coat and hang it on a coat hanger in the foyer, making a mental note to find one of my old raincoats, or to buy a new one this weekend. Alice skips past me into the living room-one of the few places in the house I hadn't ventured into yet- and smiles while she looks around, her face bright and happy. "It looks just the same, Charlie's never changed it."

I snort, collapsing onto the comfy brown couch Charlie bought five years ago when our old one got too, well, old. "You act like you haven't been here in two decades Alice, I bet if I go over to your house, it will look the same."

She pays me no mind, and walks over to the fireplace to look over the old picture frames I try not to pay much attention to.

"Look at you here," she lifts a black frame and shows it to me, smiling. It's a picture of my family before Renee left Forks. My mom and Charlie both look young, Renee's hair is redder than it is brown and her hazel eyes are bright, and Charlie's face is clean-shaven. No mustache in sight.

They're both sitting on the old couch with two kids balanced on their laps between them. On Charlie's lap is a little girl who looks more like Renee than she does him, she's no older than six, but she's already gorgeous. She has curly dark hair and hazel eyes and big dimples. The baby on Renee's lap is younger, and looks like Charlie. Me. I'm sitting there at the age two with chubby cheeks, wide brown eyes and short brown hair. I look happy, and so does Bree.

But Renee doesn't. She's smiling, but it doesn't reach her eyes. It's the last picture our family took together before Renee left Charlie for sunny weather and no attachments.

"You don't look grumpy." Alice teases lightly, "I'm not used to it."

I force myself to get up and walk up beside her, looking over the picture frames till I settle on one I don't recognize. It's pale blue and new, with the words "It's a Boy" written incursive on the bottom of the glass.

The baby is small, but he's the same age as I was in the picture with my sister and parents. He's already tanner than I'll ever be, and he has curly black hair, and dark brown eyes that come from my side of the family. Looking at his little face makes my eyes linger down the fireplace and stop at a picture of a younger me with a tan boy who looks almost exactly like the baby in the photography. It takes all I have not to drop it.

"Bella." Alice is by my side in an instant, grabbing onto my shoulder gently. "Lets go upstairs. I shouldn't have brought you to the pictures, I'm sorry."

I shrug her off and put the picture back down, my eyes still on the other one. I'm eleven in this picture, and Jacob's thirteen. I'm wearing plaid Bermuda shorts and a green collared polo, and he's dressed in basketball shorts and a white tank top. We both look young and innocent, his eyes are big, black, and warm and mine are filled with happiness than only came from being with my bestfriend Jake at that age. It's a picture of the good before the bad, and I can't help but miss those times.

"I'm shocked Charlie never took this down." Alice fingers the edge of the frame, her eyes intense. "Especially when he knew you were coming back."

"Charlie probably just didn't think of it. He's never been much into interior decorating. All the pictures here were a gift from either your mom or Jacob's before she passed."

"I guess so but still… Charlie hates Jacob now. If I hated him like Charlie does, I wouldn't want pictures of him around my house."

I smile bitterly, turning around and making my way for the stairs with Alice right behind me.

"There's no point now, Al. Jacob's pretty much family now."

We spend the next few hours bundled up in my room talking while Alice decides it's her right to look and snoop around everything I have in my room. She's cleaning out my closet of every clothing article she doesn't like when my phone buzzes, attracting her attention away from one of the dresses I'd brought with me from Phoenix, she was in the process of deciding if she liked it or not.

**How have you been?**

The text is from guy number three, as he's commonly referred to in my little black notebook. A sweet guy I'd met in Phoenix and the third person I'd ever kissed, Riley Newbourne.

"Oh, who's that?" Alice is suddenly hunched over me, nosily reading my text with curious eyes. "Who's Riley?"

"Look in the picture frame on the dresser." I point to the direction of the collage frame my Phoenix friends made for me, and tiredly pull myself off the bed to show her which one he is.

"Is he this one?" She scrunches her nose up and points to a small boy with glasses.

"No." I can't help but laugh, she just confused my gay ex-neighbor for the smoking hot lifeguard I'd met down there. "He's this one."

I point to the picture in the center of the collage. I'm standing there slightly tan in a dark blue bikini beside a dark golden boy with red swim trunks on and a whistle hanging around his neck. He's gorgeous, the type of boy you'd hope to meet on a beach trip and have a quick summer romance with. His hairs gold and cropped short, not black or bronze, and his eyes are big and ice blue. His face is perfect, and the fact that he's sporting a six-pack doesn't diminish his attractiveness, either.

"He's _fine." _Alice looks like she's about to start drooling and I cant blame her; I'd been like that when I'd first seen Riley too.

"And you wanted to move away from this? Sun and pool and hot lifeguards for Forks? Why?"

I sigh, finding my way back to the bed and pick up my phone to reply to guy number three. "I don't know Alice. In Phoenix, I was new and different. A completely new Bella. But it was like I was hiding from something." I press my lips together in deep thought. "Plus, Riley wasn't the one for me, and I wasn't the one for him. All we did was fool around a little and go on some dates, nothing too serious."

"Fooling around with him is something I'd like to add on my bucket list." Alice licks her lips and I'm beginning to question her well being.

**It's rough here. Miss you. How's Phoenix without me?**

My phone buzzes again less than a minute later.

**Miss you more little Belle. It's been sad without you. Chemistry will never be the same; we sure did have a lot of it.**

I bust out laughing at his joke, even though it's not that funny. Back in Phoenix Riley was my Chemistry partner, and I was always there to protect him from the girls in that class who'd jump off a cliff to have his phone number. Now I left him all alone and defenseless.

**I'm visiting Christmas break. Can you survive two months? But warning when I visit, I'll probably look like a pale ghost bc sunlight and Forks don't mix together well.**

Alice looks over at me curiously, but eventually finds my closet more interesting than me once again.

**You've always been as pale as a ghost, Belle. I'll recognize you on spot like I always do. Goodnight. **

I smile at the text before replying.

**Night.**

"Bella, I think these are all actually cute." Alice picks up the three hangers with my dresses and shows them to me like I've never seen them before. The shock in her voice offends me and makes me laugh all at the same time.

"No really," she holds up the first one, my sundress. It's a white, lace skater dress that runs down mid-thigh, with a triangular cutout in the back and a sweetheart neckline. "This is so cute, I'm shocked you had it in you, and this." She pulls up the second hanger and pulls up a dark blue caged neck dress I'd only worn once my entire life. "Is more reckless than I'd ever expect from you."

"The last ones my favorite." I nod at the one she's hung on my dresser, the one I'd bought for the first time I ever went to a club with my Phoenix friends, Heidi and Zafrina. It's tight and black, and the entire middle section of the dresses torso is sheer material, so you can see from the middle of your chest all the way down to your navel. It made me chest look nicer than it truly was, and it fit my body like a second skin. Like the second dress, I'd only worn it once. But that night was the one I'd met Riley.

"This," she touches the light material of the dress with a wide-eyed look, "would give Charlie a heart attack, it almost gave me one seeing it in your closet."

I shrug, slouching back in my bed and picking once more at the comforter. "Remind me to ask Charlie for money to buy a new one of these, its old and torn and itchy."

"The butterfly pattern doesn't help either." She teased.

"You know, your brother didn't talk to me today." I bring up the one thing that's been bothering me the past few hours.

"Who, oh Edward?" She suddenly turns away back to my closet and starts messing with the small pile of shoes at the bottom. "You need pumps."

"Why was that, Alice?" I press because I know she knows the answer. Despite being the only girl in the group, Al knows her brothers better than they know themselves.

She holds up a pair of black sandals and looks at me like I'm a fool. "You brought sandals to Forks in late fall, really Bella?"

"Alice, don't avoid the question." I scoot up till I'm on the edge of the bed and pull my knees up to my chest; it's at this moment that I feel a sense of familiarity. Sitting on the bed while Alice bickers at me about my clothing choices talking about boys. It almost feels good to be back here.

"Fine." Alice huffs and falls onto her back against the wood floor, straining her head till she's looking me in the eye. "He's hurt, Bella. He's been hurt since you came back that one week after the baby was born, I don't know what happened between you two, but it needs to be fixed."

I raise an eyebrow in thought, wondering what all Edward could be offended about before I realize I might just now, the last time I saw Edward before we left hadn't ended as well as I would of liked.

_Flashback_

_In just a few minutes my pillow was soaked from my tears. I'd only been back home for a few minutes, but I was already dry heaving and sobbing. _

_I was so embarrassed. So, so embarrassed. I'd lived in Phoenix for the last year, and for some odd reason, down there I felt like when I came back to Forks everything would be the same. I'd thought I'd come back and Bree wouldn't be pregnant, Jacob wouldn't be a dad, and that instead he'd still choose me. Over the baby and his new fiancée, I'd still be the only Swan sister he'd love, like how it used to be before my older sister and my bestfriend whom I loved got drunk at a party and had sex. Before Jacob got Bree pregnant and changed everything._

_I didn't notice my door squeak from being opened, and it wasn't till I felt the space beside me on the bed sink down that I realized Edward had followed me here._

"_Come on Bells," Edward pulled a wet strand of hair off of my face and looked at me intently, his green eyes full of concern and a little bit of hurt. "Don't cry like this, please don't."_

_I gulped, trying to calm down and dug my head into his chest where he let me cry for what seemed like hours. His hand traced circles into my back and every minute or so he'd whisper comforting things to me and kiss my hair. _

_Eventually the tears stopped coming, because I'd cried them all out. My body was exhausted, and Edward was still here. _

_I sighed, pulling myself up into a sitting position and was now eye-to-eye with my best friend who I hadn't seen in over nine months._

_It was July, so Edward has just turned sixteen while I still had another two months. He'd always been tall, but now his weight was proportional and he even had muscles in some places. His wild hair was tamer now, and gone was the round face, and here now was sharp cheekbones and the kind of jaw you'd see on a GQ model. He was a chiseled Greek god, and I was almost attracted to him until I realized that there was no way he'd look at me the same way, so I let the thought go as soon as I'd caught it._

"_I'm sorry." I say quietly, almost rasping from a dry throat._

_Edward sighs, his eyes grow torn between emotions, he almost looks as hurt as I feel._

"_Bella, you can't let this keep happening."_

"_What?"_

"_Letting Jacob Black hurt you, Bella. Or your sister for that matter."_

_I curl into his side instinctively and he lets me, curling his hand around my hip to keep me pinned there. "I know, Edward. I know."_

"_Bree isn't better than you, Pretty Duckling, don't cry."_

"_I'm not a pretty duckling, Edward. Stop calling me that, we're not kids anymore." _

_He pulls away quickly, glaring at me like I've hurt him to the extreme but seconds later he sighs and repositions himself back at me side. "You are too, Bella. Even when you cry."_

"_I'm no Bree." I think about my pretty older sister who has the life I always wanted now. A lifetime with Jacob, a cute child, a future with a great man._

"_And Bree's no Bella." He argues, "Jacob doesn't love her, Bella. He's stupid, that's what he is. But he's respectable enough to live with her and help her with Isaiah, that's all."_

"_She has him," I start crying again. "She always loved him even when she knew how I felt, and now she has him forever."_

"_And she's also seventeen and a mother, Bella." Edward almost growls at me. "Stop this, Bella. You're better, you should want more to yourself than just your childhood love and a baby by him."_

"_He was my first kiss. But I told you that, didn't I?" Edward nods solemnly, his face suddenly becoming blank. "But now I don't want to look back and think that he's the only guy I've ever kissed. It makes it seem like he's mine and I'm his, but I'm not. Isaiah is his, and the wrong Swan is his mother."_

_Edwards face twists in unrecognizable emotions before he suddenly grasps my face in one of his large hands and makes me look at him. His eyes deep and sad._

"_What?" I ask, not used to this with him. "Is there something on my face?"_

_This makes him smile sadly, and he keeps looking at me with this smoldering green gaze that makes me think of how attractive he is again. And the way he looks at me makes me wonder if he's thinking I'm attractive too._

_And suddenly I'm having my second kiss with the second boy, he presses his soft lips to mine and for a second I'm lost, too shocked by what's happening to act. _

_Then softly I open my mouth and kiss him back, slowly at first, then fast and hard till we're laying on my bed, me on top of him and my tongue tied with his. Its so different than Jacob's kiss, this ones more harsh, filled with a hidden surge of emotions Edwards held onto for so long, the intensity becomes much more than just a little kiss and suddenly I feel like I'm drowning in him._

_We kiss slowly for a long time till I'm out of breath and he's panting and I realize that this is the right thing, with the wrong boy. Edwards no Jacob, he's my bestfriend who cant possibly love my pale and boring self when there's other girls like my sister out there who attract every guys attention and make them fall in love, just like how she attracted Jacob. Bree's a seductress in every way, and this time she seduced the guy she'd been competing with me for attention for since we were kids. _

_I break away suddenly, and below I see Edwards's eyes flash open at the loss of contact and I almost regret it when I see how offended he becomes. _

"_I'm sorry." I breathe out trying to get air into my lungs, "I couldn't breathe."_

_This makes him smile one of those rare smiles I sometimes get, the Cullen smile all brothers have, but only Edward perfects it and makes it his own. _

"_Now the last guy you kissed wasn't Jacob," he smiles at me sadly, but there's something in his bright eyes that soon becomes dark at the same time the sadness recaptures me._

"_Yes," I breathe out, "Thank you for that, Edward."_

"_Anytime, pretty duckling." He ducks his head almost embarrassed and looks out my side window at the old tree growing beside the house, the same one we all used to climb as little kids._

"_Do you miss Forks?" He asks suddenly a few moments later, turning back to me with an expressionless face._

"_I don't know, Edward. Not yet." I shrug and look down at my butterfly comforter that's almost too young for me now. _

"_Forks misses you, Bella. You need to move back." _

_I snort. "And do what, get caught babysitting baby Isaiah while Bree and Jacob are out like the good little aunt everyone expects me to be and not say one foul thing about it? No way."_

_For some reason this makes him mad. "You can't keep feeling sorry for yourself, Bella. You've been hiding out states away for the past year while Bree was getting bigger and bigger, and now she's popped out the baby of a boy you think you love."_

"_There is no think, Edward." I argue back with him, feeling the anger inside of me flare._

"_I love Jacob."_

"_You're infatuated with Jacob," he's yelling now, his eyes are wild and torn. "I don't know why, but you've been attached to his hip since you were a kid. Its like just because he's the only person that's ever liked you more than your sister, and because of that you cling to him because he's the only one you think loves you more. His love is more of a game to you than anything else, it's a game that for years you'd been winning over your sister, and now you're sad because you lost Bella."_

"_You don't know what its like." I'm screaming too, so loud the neighbors can probably hear. "You're the oldest child and you're perfect and smart and handsome, you've never had to compete for attention. It's always been handed to you."_

"_No, Bella. That's where you're wrong." He stops and takes a deep breath, clinging at his hair with veiny hands. "I've always had to compete, but I think its just time to admit that I lost the battle that was never possible to win."_

_He storms to my door and for a moment I think he's just going to walk out before he turns back to me with this tortured expression on his face._

"_I'm tired of competing for you, Bella. You're right, my parents have always loved me, and I've never felt like I was the least favorite child to them. I never have to compete till it gets to you, my bestfriend who always had another bestfriend. I've waited long enough for you to realize, Bella. You're so lost and confused in your own sadness that you've never been able to see me. And now Bree's had Jacobs baby, your sister and your bestfriend both permanently joined, and you still don't see me even when I'm right here." He stops and its then that I see a change in Edward Cullen, his green eyes glaze over and become more cold than anything I've ever seen, they're emotionless and stare at me like I'm glass. "Have a good life in Phoenix, Bella. I hope you find someone you can see, and I hope they see you back."_

**Reviews… let me know what you think. Thanks. **


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